Another day, another facebook post sharing reckons and simplistic outrage. I usually ignore them but in the world we're in and after spending a lot of holiday time on submissions to government, I think we have to counter posts that promote division, call people names and present simplified falsehoods in the name of freedoms and equality.
I often think people haven't thought through the double-speak they’re actually representing. So it’s easier not to engage. As someone who supports building equity in our country, which includes supporting Māori aspirations, I want to share my perspective, engage in genuine conversation and call out the reckons when I see them.
The specific post that got me going likened the idea of co-governance to apartheid and racism, confused equality with equity, and expressed concern that rights were being granted to one group (Māori) over others. It also strongly criticized the ‘woke brigade’ for advocating a dystopian future and asserting moral superiority.
Am I part of that ‘woke brigade’? Do my efforts to contemplate the future and the legacy we leave for future generations put me in some camp that deserves derision? All I want is better communities and healthy environments and I can't accept that someone's supposed right to a profit should overide that. If that makes me woke, call me woke.
I am a Pākeha academic of Norwegian, Scottish, English and Irish descent and a regional councillor. In my whakapapa - ancestry - there are colonists and colonised, people who have abused and those who've been abused. I am forever grateful to a gracious, generous and welcoming Māori community that has taught me my limited reo, sparked curiousity about Te Tiriti, challenged me to understand my own whakapapa (connections to all things including my genealogy), and afforded me an otherwise unachievable view of te ao Māori (Māori world). As I’ve studied and ‘fashed me heid’ (worried my head) in these subjects, I’ve noticed both encouraging and dismissive attitudes from my friends. The dismissive and discouraging comments have come to a head recently with the proposed Treaty Principles Bill and the proposal to revisit the Regulatory Standards Bill (as an aside, neither of these bills meet the current Legislative Design Guidelines (2021) and I wonder how they stack up against the several systems we already have in place to strive for good regulation). These Bill's have sparked a virtual tirade of reckons (things people 'reckon' with no demonstrable evidence or pathway of consideration), on social media.
This has motivated me to explore some of the main issues and stand up for what I know, and also to honour the mana of the Māori people I know, who have to deal with this every day. I'm also reminded of the importance of being very specific in language (more on this later), and to understand what is really meant by each word - those we read or hear and those we say or write. To not pay attention to this is to risk accepting language that masks real meaning and allows for oversimplification. Confusing or conflating 'equity' and 'equality' is an example.
Equity vs. Equality.
Conflation of these two important concepts is at the centre of both bills mentioned above and central to most of the social media comments. People seem to think that laws should and generally do apply equally to everyone and that this is fair. This allows outrage that Māori might be treated differently. Despite all the evidence that show Māori have poorer outcomes than almost everyone else, people are still able to think Māori are given more than their share. Cognitive dissonance? The issue with this argument is it conflates equality (treating everyone exactly the same) with equity (ensuring fair outcomes by accounting for different circumstances and historical impacts). An equity approach recognizes that different people need different approaches to achieve fair outcomes.
It’s a myth to think all people are treated equally by law. Here are just a few instances of law treating people differently according to age or circumstance. I’ve deliberately excluded Māori specific law so we can see instances of different treatment that we all happily accept every day and don't seem to hold to the same logic.
Age-related differentials:
NZ Super begins at 65 with different rates for singles vs couples. It discriminates on the basis of age and living circumstances
SuperGold Card provides additional benefits to all seniors, but not anyone else.
Disability and health-related:
Supported Living Payment provides additional support for those with long-term health conditions or disabilities
Child Disability Allowance offers extra assistance for parents caring for children with disabilities
Various subsidies for healthcare and prescriptions based on income and health needs
Income and family-based:
Working for Families tax credits vary based on family size and income
Accommodation Supplement differs by region and household composition
Various hardship grants and emergency benefits based on financial circumstances
Student-related:
Student allowance rates vary based on living situation and parental income
Course-related costs support for tertiary students
Corporate based:
Tax laws and treatments apply differently to different groups and different forms of income. For example, capital is taxed quite differently from labour.
Fast-track bill - special treatment for those with projects they don't want to take through the usual consenting processes Listen to this 7 minute podcast for an example of this and decide for yourself about its fairness or the equity it might promote. 'A fast track to cronyism?' This bill is a fast track to transferring wealth from public to private hands. Fair? equitable? offering equality? This is a huge driver of increasing rates by the way, but that's another story.
Co-governance
The next argument that commonly pops up is co-governance. People often think co-governance gives Māori an upper hand, maybe even veto rights. This is untrue. And the characterization of co-governance as "apartheid" misrepresents how it actually works:
Co-governance arrangements typically involve shared decision-making, not veto powers
They often focus on specific areas of cultural, environmental or local significance
Many co-governance bodies include both Māori and non-Māori representatives
The arrangements aim to fulfill Treaty obligations while maintaining democratic principles
Democratic Principles.
There are always concerns about democracy, and it's a messy business. A common theme is that we give Māori more power than they should rightfully have However, rather than undermining democracy, co-governance upholds it by:
Ensuring historically marginalized voices are heard in decisions affecting them
Creating more robust consultation processes
Building consensus across different communities
Protecting minority rights while maintaining majority rule principles
Practical outcomes evidence suggests co-governance leads to better outcomes through:
Incorporating diverse perspectives and knowledge systems
Improving environmental management through traditional practices
Creating more sustainable solutions through genuine partnership
Building social cohesion through mutual understanding
The argument against co-governance falsely suggests a choice between unity and co-governance. In truth, respecting Treaty obligations and using equity-based methods enhance social cohesion by addressing past injustices and establishing inclusive decision-making processes that benefit all New Zealanders.
The Treaty
So this brings us to the Treaty. The Treaty isn't simply a historical document - it's New Zealand's founding document that established a partnership between the Crown and Māori. I always consider the Treaty in the context of our lesser-known constitutional document, the Declaration of Independence, Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (1835). The dual framework of the Treaty explicitly created obligations for shared decision-making. The fact that we have consistently breached the treaty since Hobson was a boy doesn’t mean our obligations don’t remain. Māori have rights to rangatiritanga (the right to rule themselves and to self-determination), it's enshrined in laws we ignore.
Language
"If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything." (commonly attributed to Confucius)
I’ve been concerned about language in the social media posts. Non-specific words like ‘equality’ being weaponised and I’ve been unsure why people get led into this. In a comment on newsroom Anne Salmond helps – she trained as a socio-linguist – and talks about “‘double speak’ - “language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words,” often deployed in political propaganda.
‘Doublespeak’ works by using a word with one set of meanings to mask what is actually being described – eg ‘democratic’ to describe a situation in which democratic principles are being flouted; ‘equality’ to describe a situation in which inequality is being perpetuated; or ‘freedom’ to describe a situation where freedom is being deprived.”
The language of the libertarian partner in our coalition government and the laws they are promoting are ‘riddled with doublespeak’ (2024, Salmond). That carefully constructed language isn't always recognised for what it is on social media.
I’ve tried to stay close to the facts as I see them here and hope you’ll all still talk to me when I run into you at the supermarket. If you’re interested in learning more about the Treaty, and Māori economy, I’ve included some resources below. As always, I’m interested in genuine conversation, alternative views, and challenges to my thinking. The future belongs to the next generations and so these conversations are important because we are the ones leaving behind frameworks for their decisionmaking.
Resources
Becoming Tangata Tiriti podcast
Treaty and Declaration posters
Anne Salmond article
There is an amazing collection of articles and presentations here
For us from Te Wai Pounamu (South Island)
Wai Māori (fresh water) and the Kāi Tahu economy
Maybe you could add a link to George Orwell's 1984, as the origin of 'doublespeak' and a fantastic example of how you control people by controlling language?
Weaponising of woke https://www.janeshearer.com/weaponising-of-woke ... hopefully we will soon move beyond that word!
It feels like we are at a similar watershed in politics to the late 1980s. Having seen how long the ripple effects of that change have carried, I feel dispirited in regard to the next decades.